Tali stood there motionless; she couldn't believe what was happening. Commander Thompson, the man who had saved her life twice was lying on one of the beds in the Normandy's med bay; Shepard was standing in the corner of the room, waiting anxiously for Thompson's condition to stabilise before she would accept treatment. The rest of the team were also there, crowding into the small room, worried for their Commanders. Tali could see Liara in a similar state of distress and she felt her anger rise, If it wasn't for you she wouldn't be like this you stupid bosh'tet! Why did you let that krogan get to you! It's your fault. But then she felt only shame and remorse, I'm not any better, why did I let the armature shoot at me? Why couldn't I get out of the way? Stupid. She thought bitterly. Doctor Chakwas was beginning to remove Thompson's armour with a cutting laser as she prepared a heavy dose of sedative. Suddenly Thompson grabbed her hand, startling everyone as they had thought he had lost consciousness.

'No sedatives.' he said in a steady voice, seemingly oblivious to his situation, 'Check my medical files.' Chakwas nodded to Kaidan to find them as she continued to cut through his armour. Tali held her breath when she saw Kaidan returning with a data pad in hand. After a few seconds of reading the doctor seemed to find what she was looking for as she gave him back the data.

'He's hypersensitive to sedatives and pain killers, if we give him even a small dose in the state he's in it will stop his heart.' she said in her calm, reassuring voice. Tali's eyes widened in shock as she realised that this meant any surgery he would have to undergo would be extremely painful for him. Finally the laser cut through the seals on his armour, causing it to fall off all at once. Everyone in the room let out a collective gasp as they saw him underneath the armour. This was for two reasons: first, his undershirt was covered in blood and riddled with holes. Second, his right arm and leg were made of metal.

'Cybernetic limbs?' Tali heard Chakwas say under her breath, 'definitely not in the record.' Thompson didn't respond, choosing to just stare at the ceiling.

'Alright everyone, the doctor needs space so I want everyone in the briefing room pronto.' Shepard said, ushering them out of the med bay and towards the stairs. Tali could hear the others talking about Commander Thompson, whether they thought that he would survive and where he had gotten his cybernetic limbs from but she didn't pay any attention to them; she was more occupied by her thoughts. She couldn't shake the feeling of grief over his injuries, which felt strange to her. Why should I care so much about him? Would I be as upset if anyone else was in his situation? Of course I would, I'm just worried about him because he risked his life to save me and I don't want him to die for it, that's all. She kept reassuring herself as they waited in the briefing room. Not long after they arrived Shepard walked in, clearly having been treated; her wounds mustn't have been all that severe if the doctor had already released her.

Tali was vaguely aware of Shepard standing up and walking over to Liara but she didn't care. No, she thought, bringing herself out of her trance. I must pay attention; this is for the good of the mission. She looked up just in time to hear Liara say 'Embrace eternity!' and turn her eyes black. Tali could remember reading somewhere that asari could bond minds to share memories; it was probably to share the vision from the beacon on Eden Prime. There was a moment of silence before Liara stepped back and started talking about it. She only got a few sentences in before nearly fainting. She was probably exhausted from being in that energy field for days without food or water. Before Shepard could say anything the door to the briefing room opened and Commander Thompson himself walked in. Tali felt her heart leap into her throat as she watched him take a few steps into the room. He was wearing shorts and nothing else, but bandages covered most of his torso. The sound of metal striking metal followed him in as his cybernetic foot hit the floor. He had a slight smile on his face and a tired glint in his eyes as he looked at each member of the startled squad. Shepard was the first one to react and she ran up to him, enveloping her arms around his chest. Tears streamed down her face as she said:

'I was so worried I was going to lose you.'

'You know it takes more than that to put me down.' Thompson stroked her hair with his good hand as he replied in his soft voice, 'And what about you? I saw you take a shotgun blast.'

'My armour protected me, there wasn't any serious damage.' There was an awkward silence as the crew waited for the end of this sudden display of emotion. Once again Tali felt her anger rise; why am I angry? Could I be…jealous? No, that can't be right, it must be something else, she thought. After a few seconds Shepard untangled herself from him and stepped aside to let the rest of the squad talk. When they had finished asking their questions Shepard piped up:

'All right, crew dismissed, I need to have a talk with Thompson here.' Tali just kept her head down as they filed out of the room; she couldn't wait to be back in engineering to take her mind off the day's events.

'Forgotten about something?' John said to Tali. She seemed jump slightly as he started speaking, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.'

'That's okay, I was just thinking. What have I forgotten anyway?' she asked, turning towards him.

'We still haven't finished with the weapons calibrations. I can take care of them myself if you have other things to do.' she began wringing her hands together as she always did when nervous.

'No! That's fine, I'd be more than happy to help.' They spent the next few hours scrolling through the programs, barely saying a word to each other. It was as John finished a particularly lengthy and troublesome algorithm that Tali decided to break the silence.

'So, what did you talk to Shepard about?' John could tell she had been working up the courage to ask that for a long time.

'For the most part we just talked; we didn't really have time to catch up after Eden Prime.' Tali hesitated before asking her next question.

'You have a history with Shepard?' there was a slight edge to her tone as she spoke, but John barely registered it.

'I do, we've known each other since we were both about eight. We're pretty much inseparable; we grew up together, trained together and even served together until she got that medal for the Skyllian Blitz thing a few years back.'

'Oh.' Tali replied simply. She seemed rather depressed about something but John decided against asking why.

'There's one other thing, apparently we don't have any more leads for the moment so Shepard decided that we'll make our way back to the Citadel for a few days of shore leave.'

'Why? We've only been gone for a week.'

'Well I need a new suit of armour, and the rest will do my injuries some good. I've got a feeling that Shepard wants to go for more than that though.'

'Oh.' Tali said again. She seemed crestfallen and John decided that he would have to find out why. Now was not the time however and so he left it at that and returned to his work. It would seem that Tali had other things to get of her chest though as she soon started speaking again.

'You shouldn't have saved me on Therum.' she said in a quiet voice, 'You could've gotten yourself killed. I'm not worth that.' John turned to look at her with a very serious expression on his face.

'I will not have you saying that. You are no less important than any other person and I would gladly step out in front of another armature to save your life. Besides, your suit wouldn't have survived the blast even if you had; a single suit puncture and you could die. I'm a lot harder to kill though, worse things than armatures have attacked me and I'm still here to talk about it.' he said in his most gentle voice. She just nodded and went back to work. It was going to be a long day.

They were in Flux, a night club and casino located in the upper wards. John was sitting at one of the central tables with Garrus, enjoying a few last drinks before they headed back to their hotel.

'I have to admit, it's been a while since I last had the luxury of drinking.' John said to Garrus, 'Not much chance when you're on active duty.'

'I don't go out drinking much,' Garrus replied, 'not enough friends in or out of C-Sec to make it worthwhile.' he took another draught of his chosen drink; a strange blue liquid that seemed to change shade when viewed from different angles.

'Really? You strike me more as the suave, ladies' man type.' Garrus let out a short laugh before answering.

'I'm nothing like that, always felt a little awkward around women to be honest. I much prefer just sticking with my work and avoiding them completely. Mind you though there was this one woman I served with on a mission. She was something else. We were the top two hand-to-hand specialists on the ship and we needed to work off some steam so we settled on a duel.'

'A duel? Not exactly the best way to get close to women Garrus.'

'It was a turian ship, that sort of thing's normal before a mission. We were absolutely evenly matched; I had reach but she had flexibility. Anyway, long story short we ended up in a stalemate that lasted nine rounds before the referee called an end. We held a tie-breaker in her quarters; more than one way to blow off steam I guess.' John shook his head as he smiled.

'It's a wonder you're still single Garrus.'

'There's something I've been meaning to ask you.' Garrus said in a more serious tone.

'Fire away buddy, what do you want to know?'

'I want to know where the hell you learned to fight. I've seen a few different styles of combat in my time but yours is unique.' John sat back in his chair and paused for a moment before answering.

'Ever heard of a guy called Jakeiro Hiroshi?'

'Can't say that I have.'

'That doesn't surprise me; his existence isn't exactly public knowledge. When I was about two years off from joining the military I realised that I had a knack for hand-to-hand combat; people were always starting fights with me because of my cybernetic limb; I hadn't lost my arm.' he paused again to take a sip of his drink before continuing, 'One day I found myself lost on the wards not far from here and began asking people for directions. Nobody paid me any attention and I just ended up wandering around trying to find a place to stay the night. I was short on creds however and nowhere would take me. Eventually I just resigned myself to sleeping outside somewhere; it was as I sat down that he approached me.'

'Weren't you suspicious about a strange man approaching you in the middle of the night?'

'Of course I was, but I wasn't in any state to do anything about it. He offered me food and shelter for the night and I accepted, for better or worse. Turns out he had seen me fight someone in a bar earlier and saw my potential; he decided to take me on as a student. I went to him whenever I had time to learn what he had to teach. He was a master at close quarters combat and I am honoured to have been his only student.'

'So that's it? You just learned how to kick ass with those blades of yours?' Garrus seemed a bit dubious.

'That's it, no more to it. Not the most interesting story but it's the truth. How about yourself, where did you train?' They continued trading stories until late on in the night before meandering towards their hotel rooms. Garrus bade him good night and went to bed. As John crawled beneath the sheets he began to wonder whether he would be able to get any sleep tonight; his nightmares had returned, worse than ever before and he was struggling to find any time for rest. Before long his fears were confirmed as in a dream filled haze he saw flashes of his past: sand stained with blood, armoured boots approaching him, the face of his mother as a batarian pointed a rifle at her. He heard himself scream as he watched the alien pull the trigger. Once again he awoke with a start and glanced over at the clock. Two hours past midnight. John sighed as he rolled over in bed; he was wide awake again and couldn't picture himself getting any more sleep tonight. A thought struck him though as he looked at the door. Without a moment's hesitation he set off down the hallway to see his old mentor.

It didn't take him long to reach the door he knew so well. The route there was permanently etched into his memory after travelling it so many times. It was a few moments before anyone answered his knock, and he was surprised to find a turian waiting for him.

'Ah, you're the one Hiroshi mentioned, please come in.' perplexed, John followed the man into the room. It was exactly as he remembered it; weapons hung from every wall, there was a simple bed over in the opposite corner of the room and a training mat in the centre. John stood in the middle of the room as the turian went to retrieve something from under the bed. He emerged with a long, cloth wrapped bundle which he held out to John.

'Master Hiroshi passed away two years ago; I'm an acquaintance of his that he could trust to watch his place after he was gone. The Master told me that you would come searching for him one day and to give you this. Apparently it is of some significance.' John just nodded at the man and turned to leave. The turian didn't say another word as John walked through the door and made his way back to the hotel.

Back in his room John could afford to shed a single tear; his master, his mentor and the closest thing he had to a father, was dead. But John knew how to deal with loss, and he knew this day was coming, for his master had been old and frail. John looked down at the cloth bundle in his arms and began to unwrap it. His eyes widened in shock as he saw what lay within; it was a sword. John held it gingerly as he tried to comprehend why he had been given this legendary weapon; for it was not just any sword, but the symbol of the Kianos: a great line of warriors. It would seem as though Master Hiroshi had passed on his duty as a trainer to his only student; which made sense when he thought about it like that. Still, John felt an enormous sense of pride, knowing that he had been trusted with continuing on a tradition that spanned generations. He took a moment to examine the sword properly and saw that it was a longsword with an intricate tribal pattern running up the length of the blade. The crossguard was swept upwards aggressively and the pommel was set with a large sapphire. As he gripped the leather-bound hilt the sapphire began to glow; startled by this sudden change John fired up his omni-tool. He quickly ran an analysis program and found that the blade had been modified to incorporate a mass effect field generator that would sheathe the blade in power whenever it was held; the result was a blade that could cut through modern armour as if it were paper.

'Hiroshi you clever bastard.' John whispered to the empty room. Setting the blade aside he walked back over to his bed and sat down, lost in thought. This is going to make things interesting.

Garrus was lonely. It had taken him a long time to realise this but after talking with Thompson at the bar he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was not quite right. Now he was lying in bed wide awake wondering why he couldn't get to sleep. Garrus had found out what was bothering him so why couldn't he just get some rest already? He sighed and began to think about something else: Shepard. It would seem he just couldn't keep himself from thinking about her recently and it was beginning to worry him. Sure she's a fine commander and strong woman, he thought, but why can't I take my mind off her? I mean, she has a great smile and when she laughs I can't help but laugh too. What's wrong with me? She's my commanding officer for fuck's sake, and a human too! I really need to get a grip. Besides, Thompson is much closer to her than I am; they've even known each other since they were kids. Then there's how she reacted when he got hurt; I don't think Shepard's the kind of person to cry over nothing and… damn it there I go again. He got up and walked over to the window looking out over the wards. When this is all over you can forget all about her and go find yourself a nice turian woman. For some reason, that thought made him feel odd; like it was somehow wrong to even think about being with someone else. Really Vakarian? You really think you have feelings for her? Stop being such a weirdo and get some sleep. He walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge, face in hands. I guess that's out of the question. He thought bitterly; no way was he getting any sleep in the state he was in. With a heavy sigh he resigned himself to staying awake until he could sort out his thoughts. This is going to be a long night.